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I saw a few topics like this during a search, but I intend for this to be more comprehensive than all of them (the others tended to focus on color/length of hair alone).

I'd like to get everybody's take on "anime hair". What color of anime hair do you like best? Which style? Which length? Do you like how funky anime hair can get? Do you like its rainbow quality? Or do you prefer more realistic hair styles and lengths (such as in Wandering Son)?

As a (hopefully comedic) lead-in for this discussion, I wrote up a fanfic-y discussion involving a cast uniquely well-equipped to debate anime hair... that being the cast of Madoka Magica.

Spoiler for Feel free to skip, as this part is just for fun.:

Madoka, Homura, Sayaka, Mami, Kyouko, and Hitomi were all gathered around a pure white table in Hitomi's wealthy home in order to have a most pressing discussion - Which "anime hair" is the best?!

Kyouko: Long and red is clearly where it's at! Red-haired girls always have spunk and style. Just look at Sana in Mashiro-iro Symphony... she's a lot like me!

Homura: You were right... at one time, Kyouko. But now long, dark hair clearly dominates the anime scene. From beautiful butterflies to sexy ghosts, long dark hair is the hair of winning in today's world!

Hitomi: Ah, but the most effective way to win is to overcome the rules. And as a wise and wealthy man once said 'Screw the rules! I have green hair!'

Some nervous laughter abounds, until Madoka picks up where the conversation left off.

Madoka: While I like and respect all hair colors, I think that pink hair provides the easiest route to 'winning', Homura. Why, as a certain pop idol in a recent noitaminA show demonstrated, an anime character with pink hair can have no personality at all and still be popular!

Sayaka: That is impressive, Madoka. But us blue haired-people have one word that can totally counter it!

Madoka: What word is that, Sayaka?

Sayaka:Kamina.

Madoka: ... I must admit, that is a very impressive word.

Mami: It is, but I'm afraid you're missing the core point of Gurren Lagann, Sayaka.

Sayaka: Oh? How so? I hope you're not going to say that blonde wins over blue due to Kittan.

Mami: I'm not talking about hair color, but rather hair style. And as Gurren Lagann makes clear, the most powerful object in the universe is the drill.

Sayaka (nervously): Are you saying that you pierce the heavens with your hair, Mami?

Mami (while sipping tea): Of course.

Madoka: While drill-hair is nice, I think that basic twin-tails is the best. MariMite makes that clear!

Kyouko: Ha! We all know that the long ponytail is where it's at! It's the preference of men who can handle gods, after all!

Sayaka: Well, if you want to talk about that anime, Kyouko, I think it's telling that the short-haired girl can even take the power of gods away!

Hitomi: And what hairstyle does the godly girl herself have, hhhmmm? Is it not shoulder-length, wavy hair like moi?

Homura: Hime-cut. Deadly and accurate. Always.

Sayaka: Ryoko Asakura is great because of her hair color, not its style.

????: Ah, you girls, forgetting the greatest hair of all!

Sayaka (almost swooning): T-That voice!

Hitomi (almost swooning): Yes, it is!

Kyousuke Kamijo (strutting into the scene, confidently): Silver hair is the true hair of the gods. When an anime character has silver hair, you know you're in for a wild time! Silver hair belongs to the toughest girl in Clannad... and the winner of ISML 2012.

Madoka: Clannad reminds me of purple hair. That's kind of nice too!

Sayaka: Purple is pretty nice, yeah. But I've learned that nothing reflects power more than spikey hair! If someone has spikey hair, you just know that they're special.

It may seem boring to some but I've come to prefer the traditional black hime cut or variations thereof as of late (though dark blue or purple also work for this). Aside from that, white or light purple in any length, shape or form. Hair decorations tend to be a plus for me in general as well; Rea from Sankarea's flower and uh, whatever those things are that Cryska and Inia from Total Eclipse wear as part of their pilot suits being 2 recent examples.

My favorite hair fetish tend to be female characters having slightly curly hair in recent animes, and I also like two-sided, ample ponytails (like Houki from Infinite Stratos or Seraphim from Is This A Zombie ?). I also tend to like pastel-flavored haircolors or the ones with unusually-colored shadings (like the cast from Uta no Prince-sama). So long as the character have a good hairstyle, I don't mind.

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for girls
In real life and in anime I prefer girls with shoulder lengthed hair examples like haruhi suzumiya or momo fom to love ru. for long hair I only like black or brunette and for extra add a hairclip ,headband ,flower but no ponytail. pigtails are fine if they look like Inori's from GC.

this looks like a thread for me because one of the things i like in anime is that it has awesome hair styling,
i mostly look out hair style of male characters, i like it long making bangs around the forehead and eyes.
for eg:

I prefer realistic hair, but since that's so rare, if I had to choose from normal anime hair qualities, I'd say black-colored for females, if only because black is stereotyped for the level-headed/intellectual girls. For males, anything other than long hair, because I just find long hair on men to be frilly, regardless of how frilly the character may be. Obviously, these are generalizations, much like "anime hair" is, in general.

That said, hair is about the last thing I really care about when it comes to watching anime, and I certainly can't think of ever enjoying/hating a show based off that criteria.

Balalaika has realistic hair, I suppose, in both style and color. However, I'm pretty neutral on the style, so I can't say her hair had any weight in my enjoyment of the character. Though, as I write this, I am trying to imagine her in an affro (or dreads), and I admit, I probably wouldn't find her nearly as appealing. On the flip side, I'm trying to imagine random anime characters I hate with new hairstyles, and not finding myself changing my opinion towards them.

So, perhaps the more accurate thing to say is that hair can negatively color my opinion towards a character, but not necessarily improve it.

I've always liked white/gray/silver/w.e as a color (it's really the same shading anyways!). They often are wise beyond their years, calm/cool/controlled, or somehow exceptional or insane.

I mean this guy's default form looks kinda girly, but nobody fucks with this man. Not only is he wise, but he is extremely likely to abuse it to maximize the suffering of those that mess with him or his family.

Oh and this man is just incomprehensible to his peers. Wait, he has none.

In any case, how did we go so far without mentioning the master of a thousand hairstyles herself, Fate Testarossa, anyways? Really, like every new piece of art of her changes her hairstyle for some reason.

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For boys, I tend to favor dark hair with long bangs that hang between their eyes. Total boyish charm there. But....the color doesn't matter that much. I've just noticed that every time a dark-haired bishie shows up with sleek, long bangs, I immediately love him. I like short hair....but there are long-haired guys I love too and if said long hair gets chopped short, I GET REALLY MAD!

SAITOHIMEA WINS FIRST PRIZE FOR MOST AMAZING HAIR EVER. All other anime girls need to bow down to this Goddess of Technicolor Tresses. Three colors. Impossibly long. Sparkles like diamonds. I can't get over how gorgeous it is. The whole time she was onscreen, I just stared at her hair. IT'S JUST SO BEAUTIFUL. I'm actually jealous. It's impossible for a girl to have hair this beautiful.....yet she does. That's not fair.